Regeneration of nerve cells is an issue in the field of regenerative medicine. For example, it is anticipated that various central nervous system disorders will be treated by nerve cell regeneration using neural stem cells or embryonic stem cells (ES cells) (see for example Japanese Patent Applications Laid-open Nos. 2004-357543 and H9-323928). However, neural stem cells are difficult to obtain (collect). Moreover, when these stem cells are transplanted as is into an affected part, they are unlikely to survive and very few differentiate into neurons. Most of those that do survive differentiate into glial cells. On the other hand, dermal stem cells, fat stem cells and other somatic (adult) stem cells are relatively easy to obtain, and if nerve cells could be differentiated from such stem cells, they would be extremely useful in the medical industry, so there is demand for development of neuronal differentiation inducers for this purpose.
However, there has been no research at all into neuronal differentiation inhibitors (or neuronal differentiation induction controllers or neuronal differentiation induction inhibitors) for artificially controlling the differentiation of stem cells and the like into neurons, making this unexplored territory. Research into neuronal differentiation (induction) inhibitors seems to be an extention of neuronal differentiation induction research.